Well the -a ending is typically feminine in a lot of languages. I know in Latin, for instance, first declension masculine nouns were extremely rare (though names like Agrippa come to mind). So it shouldn't be surprising that this results in the same pattern in English.

This is a huge problem with Chinese names, because the language contains a lot of homonyms. I think parents just never bothered to really say the names out loud... I've heard of and encountered names that (in Chinese) sound like "Pig Language", "Long Middle Finger", "Not Married", and "Piss Ball".

Don't know if someone brought this up or not, but there's an urban legend about a woman naming her kids something like L'Mongello and O'Rangello. Of course, it's just spelled Lemon Jello and Orange Jello.

www.cuttingroomcomic.com - a twice a week webcomic about recently released and upcoming movies.

If I add the jello names to my drinking game, do you think I'd die of liver toxicity?

/angell

Linguistic AnarchistHawknc: ANGELL IS SERIOUS BUSINESS :-[lesliesage: Animals dunked in crude oil: sad. Animals dunked in boiling oil: tasty.Belial: I was in your mom's room all night committing to a series of extended military actions.

Dear prospective parents: Don't name your kid's the nickname of a name. For example, don't name your kid Sam. Name your kid Samuel, and then call him Sam. It doesn't matter how many grandparents have had a nickname as a name, it's improper, and you'd save your child lots of frustration.

"So, is Sam short for Samuel?""No. It's my name.""Oh."

(This question is like asking someone how they got so tall. Funny a few times, annoying the next forty."

Another advantage to that is it gives the child some flexibility in what they can be called. My roommate's parents wanted to name him Dusty, but they thought he might not like it, so they named him Dustin and then called him Dusty. It turned out that he hates Dustin anyway, but he thinks it's nice they gave him the option.

Iulus Cofield wrote:Another advantage to that is it gives the child some flexibility in what they can be called. My roommate's parents wanted to name him Dusty, but they thought he might not like it, so they named him Dustin and then called him Dusty. It turned out that he hates Dustin anyway, but he thinks it's nice they gave him the option.

If you give your kid a middle name too, that doubles the odds they will like it. My brother's name is Thomas Charles, and he goes by Charlie.

Ben's Brook wrote:Dear prospective parents: Don't name your kid's the nickname of a name. For example, don't name your kid Sam. Name your kid Samuel, and then call him Sam. It doesn't matter how many grandparents have had a nickname as a name, it's improper, and you'd save your child lots of frustration.

"So, is Sam short for Samuel?""No. It's my name.""Oh."

(This question is like asking someone how they got so tall. Funny a few times, annoying the next forty."

In a similar vein, don't give your kids an unusual variation on a common name, like "Kevan" or "Jennipher".

In fact -- and some may disagree with me here -- I'd almost go so far as to say you should stay away from names like Stephen/Steven, or Katherine/Catherine/Katharine. Even though those are all widely accepted spellings, when you choose one of those names, you're saddling your child with the duty of constantly having to explain how to spell their name.

skullturf wrote:In fact -- and some may disagree with me here -- I'd almost go so far as to say you should stay away from names like Stephen/Steven, or Katherine/Catherine/Katharine. Even though those are all widely accepted spellings, when you choose one of those names, you're saddling your child with the duty of constantly having to explain how to spell their name.

It is however akceptable to replace all hard C's with K's as long as you do so konsistently for all your kids.

Eebster the Great wrote:If you give your kid a middle name too, that doubles the odds they will like it. My brother's name is Thomas Charles, and he goes by Charlie.

I had a friend at uni called Charles Thomas, and he insisted on going by Tom. Unfortunately for him, the fact the Charles was his first name became apparent from the geophysics-computer username he was given, and so we all started callling him Charlie for a while just to watch him writhe in pain at his dislike of the name...

I've heard of this, but I don't know if it's true. Think of how this would be pronounced: "Le-a."

Spoiler:

It's "Ledasha."

Kids called Gay, Precious, and Joy. Precious was a male.

When my sister was little she said she wanted fraternal twins named Nerjerd and Nerjerderita.

I'm not a fan of the name Ima, especially when you have a rather horrid last name. Ima Butts. Ima Horr. Ima Cutter. Ima Kitchen. Ima Mare. No good comes out of it.

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